Tinder app adds health section, STD-test locator

Tinder users will see a new feature in their dating app next time they log in: a health safety section that links to a free HIV and STD testing-site locator.

The new feature links directly to Healthvana, a patient engagement platform that links sexual-health providers to patients and allows users to "take control of their personal health" by providing them with information about local STD testing locations.

Tinder came under fire last September by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides HIV prevention services, care and testing, when the organization launched a campaign that included billboards depicting a link between Tinder and sexually transmitted diseases.

"The CDC recently reported that sexually transmitted diseases increased dramatically in 2014. We are unfortunately now waging an uphill battle on this front. The CDC also noted, the majority of these infections are affecting young people — the demographic that is on their mobile phones all day long," said Whitney Engeran Cordova, a senior director at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in a statement.

"This is why it is such welcome news that Tinder will add a Health Safety section with a link to Healthvana, making it easier for people to find testing locations through an easily accessible, modern platform," Cordova said. "And we hope to see other dating sites do the same."